


Maybe change is not that bad

by stressedoutteenager



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 09:16:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13004613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stressedoutteenager/pseuds/stressedoutteenager
Summary: Sana is out with her friends, Yousef is also out with his friends. They meet accidentally and spend time all together until everyone goes their own ways. Not Sana and Yousef, though.





	Maybe change is not that bad

**Author's Note:**

  * For [livinonaflyingcarpet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/livinonaflyingcarpet/gifts).



There’s something very peaceful about walking through empty streets, just talking to her friends, Sana thinks.   
The sun is setting and it’s getting chilly but Sana doesn’t notice, maybe she does but she doesn’t care.

The girls met after school for lunch and have been hanging out since.

“I’m telling you, I know I’m right!”, Chris exclaims, waving her arms around while talking. Her eyes wander over her friends and then she turns to look at Sana. “Let’s ask Sana, she’s smart.”

Sana chuckles lightly and raises her eyebrows in a questioning manner. She had been texting her mom and that’s why she missed what her friends were talking about in the past couple of minutes.

“That’s unfair, though. You two take German class, we don’t.”, Eva mentions and Sana is still lost. Why are they talking about German class? When did the conversation make its way towards this topic? The last topic was a Christmas party the girls wanted to organize but that should be before Sana’s birthday because the girls wanted to celebrate her birthday properly.

In the end it was just a discussion about who can introduce themselves in the most languages. Sana won, by the way. It has its perks growing up bilingual and making it through too many language classes your brother makes fun of you for taking.

When they’re sitting spread out on two benches that are next to each other, Vilde leans forwards to be able to look at everyone and announces a little too loud for the rather quiet surroundings: “Guys, I’m hungry again. Let’s go eat something!”

“Yes, agreed!”

“I was about to suggest that.”, Eva says and high-fives Vilde.

“Pizza?”, Sana asks, also leaning forward and looking at each of her friends individually.

They all nod and stand up at the same time. Chris hooks her arm with Sana’s and leans her head on Sana’s shoulder while walking. Sana might have had a hand in bringing Mutta to get his shit together to properly talk to Chris which made Chris be even bubblier than she usually already is.

On their way to the nearest pizza place they’re laughing about a story Chris told but Eva is the first one to stop.

She nods to the other side of the street and asks: “Sana, aren’t those your boys?”

Without looking at the same spot Eva and the other girls are looking at, Sana furrows her eyebrows and answers Eva’s question with one of her own: “My boys?” Sana wasn’t aware she had _her boys._

However, her question is answered when Sana follows the girls’ gaze and sees a group of five. Elias and Yousef walking in the middle, Mikael and Mutta on their right and Adam on their left. Sana tries to think of the last time she saw any of them out and about on their own but comes up blank.

They’re crossing the street and while Sana smiles at them, at one boy in particular, she feels like she shouldn’t get so excited to see him so she turns her gaze away. But since all her friends are staring at the boys coming towards them, Sana looks back and can’t help the smile growing on her lips.

Yousef has his hands in the pocket of his jacket, a smile on his lips and his eyes trained on Sana.

Sana presses her lips together and tries to take a deep breath without it being noticed by anyone around her. Since Yousef came back from Turkey a couple of months ago, Sana and him have been hanging out a lot. Instead of that making Sana less nervous whenever she sees the dark-haired, tall boy, the exact opposite happened. Any time he’s close, she feels nervous. In a positive, butterflies in the stomach-kind of way. Yes, she disgusts herself thinking about it. When did she turn into this ridiculously sappy person?

Everyone snaps out of their trance like situation when a loud car horn can be heard and the five boys jump startled. They’ve been crossing the street so slowly that they were almost run over.

Sana, Chris and Eva burst out laughing at the situation and especially at the boys’ scared facial expressions while they run to the girls’ side of the street, towards the pizza place.

“Is it that funny that we almost died?”, Adam asks the three girls that can’t stop laughing.

Eva opens her mouth to say something but can’t bring out a single word before starting to laugh again. Sana stands up straight and tries to stop but as soon as she looks at Chris, any chance of collecting herself soon is gone.

“Hey, girls! Snap out of it, please.!”, Elias says laughingly and clapping twice, and turns to Sana in particular, “Do you react like this when your dear brother just escaped death.”

Sana, who has managed to stop laughing somehow, looks at her brother but her eyes skip to the tall boy next to him for a moment. When Yousef smiles at her, she can’t help but smile back. But when Sana looks at her brother her smile turns into a smirk.

“Oh please, don’t be so dramatic. And it’s not my fault that you guys decided to act like you’re in a music video or something instead of crossing the street quickly.”

 

Turns out both groups of friends chose the same pizza place to get something to eat. Neither of them knew the others would be here but apparently ‘ _that’s fate_ ’, as Mutta said, looking at Chris.

“I think they hate us now.”, Mikael mentions, when everyone sits down.

“Why?”, Eva asks confused.

“Because we need a table for 10 and pushed these together.”, Adam answers, pointing to the tables they just pushed together. That will be a little more work for the employees later on, probably.

“12, actually.”, Elias pipes up, putting his phone down on the table. “Even and Isak will meet us here in a bit.”

And in a bit means about 15 minutes, in this case.   
So there they are, 12 people, almost all talking at the same time.

“Sana, you need to tell him he should chill.”, Even says. He’s sitting next to Sana and has turned all his attention to her now.

“I can’t. And maybe shouldn’t. Isak needs to pass his next exam with a 6 if he wants to keep pretending that he’s the best at biology.”, Sana says, trying to suppress her smile. She is talking a little louder than necessary so Isak can hear her. Isak is sitting across from Even and next to Yousef.

As Sana suspected, Isak turns his gaze to Sana and narrows her eyes at her playfully.   
“I am as good in biology as you! Even better maybe!”

Sana tilts her head slightly and raises her eyebrows, looking at him unimpressed. Another person gets involved in the conversation.

“Aren’t you two always together in a group in your science classes?”, Yousef asks, looking from Isak to Sana. He is pretty sure, but he knows Sana loves talking about her science classes because she enjoys them a lot.

Both students nod and Isak is the first to answer: “It started out involuntarily but now, if it has to be group work, Sana is the best to work with.”

Sana smiles at that and meets Isak’s gaze. She usually hates group work but to be honest, it really makes a difference if it’s with Isak. She knows he’ll do the work, even if it takes him a little more time because he keeps procrastinating.

“Aww, Isak. Thanks!”, Sana answer because she doesn’t know how else to answer that.

Then Even makes a comment about that which Sana doesn’t quite get so she turns her attention away from the couple. She lets her eyes wander over the group she’s surrounded by.  Everyone is involved in a conversation.

Sana can’t believe they’re all sitting here together. A few months ago she would never have thought that Elias and his friends would hang out with Sana and her friends. Although, by now it would be wrong to speak of the girls as only Sana’s friends and of the boy’s as just Elias’ friends.

And finally, Sana’s eyes land on the one sitting right across from her. Yousef.

He was looking around the table, as well, and their eyes meet.   
Yousef leans forward, resting his forearms on the table. He doesn’t say anything, just smiles slightly. He doesn’t have to do anything else and Sana is smiling once again.   
She mimics him. Leans forward, rests her forearms on the table and smiles.

Somehow, they are both completely content with this. They don’t need more. Neither Sana nor Yousef feels too comfortable voicing their thoughts in situations like this, when they are surrounded by a lot of people.

Yousef raises his eyebrows, looking at the almost not touched pizza in front of Sana. Sana’s eyes fall onto the food in front of her, she had almost forgotten about. She takes a bite and then looks at Yousef.

He’s eating a pizza with tuna while Sana is eating pizza with peppers and champignons. She pushes her plate towards the dark-haired boy a little and raises her eyebrows a bit. His eyes fall onto her plate and find their way back to look Sana into her eyes.

Yousef nods a little and reaches out to take one slice of her pizza. He takes a bite of it and makes a point in ridiculously grinning at Sana. Then his eyes dart down onto his plate. Sana doesn’t like pizza with tuna but instead of pushing that plate towards her, his eyes land on the small plate with fries which he then pushes a little forward, in her direction.

Sana rolls her eyes at that gesture, even though she just did the same thing, but takes a fry from the small bowl.

If it was not for Elias and Adam almost shouting along to a song they love that was playing in the background: “And it's so easy to be rebel in your basement flat; You coward!“, Sana and Yousef probably would have continued to communicate without the need for any words. They had drowned out the noise around them.

At the sudden outburst of those two, that had apparently waited for this particular moment in the song to do that, everyone shuts up for a moment and looks at them with wide eyes but then bursts out laughing.

They sit there for quite some time. When they decide to leave, they don’t all go their own ways but rather walk a bit all together and arrive at a park.

It’s a rather big park. The first part consists of playground. Since it’s late already and also dark, it’s empty.

“Guys, I need to leave. My roommates are freaking out because they watched some kind of conspiracy theory documentary. I should go check on them.”, Noora announces after putting her phone away. Noora turns to Eva and asks: “Do you want to come now or later?” Sana knows that Eva’s mother is not home and she didn’t want to be home alone.

Sana is about to ask if they’ll be okay walking home alone when her older brother pipes up.  
“You mind if I follow you home then? It’s dark already.”, Elias asks, looking more at Noora than at Eva. But when Noora narrows her eyes at him, Elias quickly adds: “And no, I don’t mean you wouldn’t be fine on your own but I just feel like it.”

With that Eva, Noora and Elias leave. Sana’s brother turns around to look at her and says: “See you at home.”

As soon as these three are gone, Sana turns around and looks at the playground. Her eyes land on the swing sets. Memories of when she was around seven years old flood into her mind and without noticing she walks towards the swings. Sitting down on one, she starts swinging slightly and smiles to herself. She hasn’t been here for a long time.

“Hey.” , she hears from her right side.

Sana looks up and smiles. Yousef points at the swing next to hers and raises his eyebrows in questioning manner. She nods and looks at the ground, pushing herself from the ground.

When Sana looks up she catches Yousef looking at her. However, he doesn’t try to hide that he was looking at her, just smiles. Which makes Sana blush slightly.  

After looking around, she asks: “Where did the other’s go?”  
Only then Yousef lets his eyes wander over the playground, which is completely empty except for the two of them now. “I don’t know. They were here a minute ago.”  
  
Sana texts her friends quickly and puts her phone away.

 

“Do you remember how we came here a lot with our parents?”, Yousef asks Sana.

They really did spend a lot of time here, at this playground. Elias and Yousef became friends in kindergarten and following that, their families spent a whole lot of time together.

Yousef looks back at Sana, who is nodding.   
“Of course.”, Sana is reminiscing, “We were here almost every day.”  
As long as it wasn’t too cold, even in rain and mud, Sana insisted on coming here to play. She always liked being active and she’d always meet new friends here.

“And you were on these swings every time.”, Yousef comments. Maybe he meant to say that, maybe he didn’t.

Sana’s head snaps in Yousef’s direction and her eyebrows shoot up. He paid attention to that?

Sana’s lips form into a smile which then makes Yousef smile, too. There is a moment of silence. The cars from the still busy streets can be heard in the distance and also a few people walking through the park.

One thought leads to another and Sana closes her eyes for a moment, trying to sort through them. One apparent thing making its circles in her head is that she liked coming here all the time, because it was a good constant thing in her life. She didn’t need to change a good routine if it worked, not even then.

Sana looks up at Yousef suddenly and voices one of the many thoughts to Yousef, without really thinking it through first: “Do you know why we still have those swing sets in our backyard?”

Scrunching his nose up in concentration Yousef shakes his head a little and makes Sana laugh. He’s such a dork, Sana thinks.  
“For your cousins when they come to visit you?”, he finally answers.

Standing up from the swing she was sitting on, Sana goes to stand in front of Yousef and shakes her head at him with her hands on her hips. That was definitely not what she was thinking but she understands why that was his answer.  

“Well, yes. That too. But mainly, because I almost begged my parents to not dismantle those.”  
Why does she tell him that now? There’s no apparent reason. Just that she was thinking about it and wanted to share her thoughts with him. She likes doing that. He’s a good listener and usually has something to answer to whatever she is talking about. He shares his view on things which Sana appreciates a lot.

 “Sana?”, Yousef calls out and Sana hears him walking a few steps and sees him looking around.

“Yeah?”, she answers to which he follows the voice and finally sees her. She’s standing on a balancing board with her arms spread out to not fall and watches Yousef walk up to her. He stops in front of her and grins.  
  
They’re about on the same height in this moment.   
“What?”, Sana asks when she notices Yousef watching her with a small smile on his lips. He doesn’t say anything but Sana has seen this grin way too many times to let it go now. 

When she saw that he was deep in thoughts just seconds ago, she took the moment and walked a few metres. Also, it was funny to see his confused look when she was suddenly gone.

He shrugs: “Nothing.”, but the look on his face doesn’t say nothing. Sana would give a lot to be able to read his mind at times. Right now, that is one of those times.

A few moments they just stand there, Sana trying not to lose her balance, looking each other in the eyes. Yousef starts smiling, so does Sana. And when he takes a tiny step forward, Sana follows that movement and suddenly loses her balance, stumbling forward. Yousef’s arms instantly shoot forward and he instinctively catches Sana by holding her arms.

Sana is very aware of his hands on her arms but she doesn’t mind. At all. Still, he lets her go as soon as she’s standing steadily. That doesn’t mean either of them steps back to make more room between the two of them though. All they do is look each other in the eyes and start grinning at the same time. Sana’s cheeks grow red but she hope the dark-haired boy can’t see that due to the lack of light at the playground.

A loud car horn from a few streets over bursts their small bubble and they both jump. After that, neither Sana nor Yousef can look the other in the eye for a few minutes.  It’s still comfortable between them, though.  She can’t really explain this feeling. It’s nothing new. Whenever Sana gets too lost in her conversations with Yousef, be it verbally or silently, she seems to forget everything else around her. So when that moment ends, she feels … a little out of place for a moment.  
  
However, it’s only now that Sana realizes just how comfortable she really is around him. Just a minute ago there was just a tiny space between them and she didn’t immediately jump back. Usually, keeping her distance, physically and mentally, is Sana’s first choice. But … not with him.

Wordlessly agreeing, Sana and Yousef start walking through the playground. Whose idea even was it to come here after they left the pizza place? Not that Sana is complaining.   


“Hey! The potato is gone!”, Sana suddenly exclaims. Immediately her eyebrows furrow and she sighs.

 “What?”, Yousef asks and Sana can hear the confusion in his voice. It makes Sana look at him.

She almost laughs at his facial expression but then turns back and points at a sandbox.   
“There was this small house-like thing on the sandbox. Elias and I used to play in there a lot when we were younger. It’s gone!” They used to call it potato because its form was very weird and didn’t look like anything in particular.

Maybe she shouldn’t react like this but her brother and her made a lot of memories in that house-like thing. She loved it when she was younger. Why did they have to take that off the sandbox?

A short moment Yousef doesn’t say anything, so Sana doesn’t add anything either.    
However, when he does say something it’s something Sana wasn’t prepared for. “You really don’t like change, do you?”

This question makes Sana look away from the ground she has been staring at, to the tall boy walking next to her.

First she shrugs but then decides to just tell him.  
“No, not really.”, Sana answers, meeting Yousef’s gaze. “At least not always. When things are good, change is not necessary.”

“Sure… but things can change to be even better.”, Yousef says, looking right back at her, taking a step closer.

Sana nods, she understands what he means, but still has something to say to that. They’ve stopped walking and are facing each other now. Somehow their closeness right now doesn’t faze her in the slightest.

“Yeah, I know. But sometimes … when things are good and going well anyway … I don’t know. Sometimes, I feel like it would be an unrealistic miracle for things to _just_ get even better.”

Is Sana still talking about small things like a playground changing or is she talking about bigger things? Sana is pretty sure Yousef caught on that she’s not only referring to the playground anymore. She didn’t plan on doing that, but while thinking about it, she realized.

Sana realized that she likes the way Yousef and her are right now. Friends. Friends that know they like each other. That are on the same page. That feel comfortable around each other. That like spending a lot of time together. That get the most cliché feeling of butterflies in their stomachs whenever they are close to one another.

Maybe going one step ahead will change that all. In a negative way. Sana can’t help but worry.

Yousef slightly tilts his head to the side but doesn’t take his eyes off of Sana and neither does she look away. “The person who does not believe in miracles surely makes it certain that he or she will never take part in one.”,  Yousef says with a smile, looking right into Sana’s eyes.

He speaks in such a soft tone, that Sana can’t react immediately. She gets more time to think about what he said when his phone rings. He smiles at Sana apologetically and picks up. He doesn’t walk away though.   
Did he just quote something to her or was this one of his ‘wise’ moments, he has sometimes. Sana really isn’t sure.

“Efendim?”, Yousef answers the phone. He listens to whatever the person on the other end of the line is saying and nods along. “Okay. Yeah, sure. I can do that. Bye.”

After he ends the call, Sana looks at him, smiling and raising her eyebrows.

He answers with a smile of his own. She enjoys seeing him like this.

“That was my mom.”, he finally explains. “She forgot her keys at home and dad is still at grandpa’s … so I need to go the restaurant to give her mine. Which means I can’t follow you home…”

Sana sees Yousef frown at his last sentence. She opens her mouth to say she will be fine on her own but he beats her to it and starts talking again.

“But you can come with me. If you want to of course.” Yousef quickly adds: “My mom has been asking about you anyway.”

Sana’s eyebrows shoot up; she asks: “She did?”  
Even though she basically grew up around Yousef’s mother, since she’s such good friends with Sana’s mom, that whole situation shifted slightly after Sana started hanging out with Yousef. Not Yousef and her brother, just Yousef.

He just nods with a smile. He sounds so sure that Sana doesn’t even think to say no.

“Okay then.”, Sana says and starts walking in the right direction, leaving Yousef to stand there alone.

He quickly catches up to her and looks her with a smile at the same time Sana turns to look at him.

 “Do you think she still has Baklava at the restaurant?”, Sana asks. She might be biased because she grew up with Mama Acar’s Baklava but to Sana it’s the best there is. Even if she is biased, all those customers at the Acar’s restaurant can’t be wrong.

“Are you kidding? Of course!”, Yousef answers. “We just made some this morning.”

Sana laughs a little. She has seen Yousef cook several things but never something like Baklava. “You helped?”

Yousef nods.

Sana shouldn’t be surprised. The Acar’s have been running their own restaurant for ages and Yousef has spent a whole lot of time in there, helping or just hanging around his parents.

“Oh, I almost forgot!”, Sana explains, as they are crossing the street. While thinking about the great food Yousef’s parents can make, she remembers the conversation her family had at the breakfast table today. “My mom invited your family over to dinner, next Friday. She says it’s been too long since you were over at ours all together. Don’t know if Elias told you already.”

They’re only a street away from their destination and both of them would be able to find the way with their eyes closed. So it doesn’t matter that neither of them is looking where they are going.   
Sana’s eyes are only on Yousef.

Shaking his head, he answers: “No, he probably forgot. But I’m looking forward to it.”

Smiling to herself, Sana looks down on her hand brushing against Yousef’s. They’re walking really close to each other, shoulders bumping into each other every once in a while. How is it that she can be insanely calm when she’s with him in one moment and a nervous, giddy mess in the next?

“Did you quote William Blake to me?”, Sana exclaims, as that thought suddenly pops into her head, “About whoever doesn’t believe in miracles won’t be part of one.”

Yousef starts laughing at the sudden realization Sana just had. Then he nods. She knew that was a quote she had heard before.

“Yep.”, is his answer. “If English class taught me anything, it’s the ability to quote a few English poets and authors.”

Sana joins him in laughing and shakes her head at him. Wow. This is the boy she likes. Who quotes poets to her in a casual conversation.   
He’s the boy whose fingers she intertwined hers with a second ago.   
From the corner of her eye she can see him look down on her hand in his but she doesn’t. She presses her lips together to hide the big smile appearing on them.   


Opening the door to the restaurant that is about to close and in which his mother is waiting; Yousef holds it open for Sana. And only then they let go of each other’s hand. And instantly they both miss the feeling.

“Hello you two!”, they hear a familiar voice say. Yousef’s mother is smiling at her son and Sana. “Sana! It’s so nice to see you!”

When Yousef’s mother embraces Sana in a big hug Sana smiles widely. Her eyes find Yousef who is leaning on the counter and she has only one thought.

Maybe change is not that bad after all.


End file.
